The Zune HD 16GB and 32GB, Microsoft's competitors in the portable media player space, have been lowered in price, possibly in advance of new device versions hitting the market. Recent rumors about a "Zune Phone" or smartphone with Zune software being announced by Microsoft on Feb. 15 raises the possibility that the new device could indeed be a mobile device, although issues with Zune branding may also prevent this from occurring. The Zune HD price dip could also be a promotional effort.

Juniper Research has just published a report predicting “massive growth” for mobile ticketing by 2014, according to Mobile Marketing Watch. The report states that some 15 billion mobile tickets will be in use by 2014, compared to the current mark of 2 million.

As of now, the Far East and China regions are leading the way in mobile ticketing, but Juniper predicts that Western Europe will take the lead by 2014, due to advancements in device integration.

The OTP Bank of Hungary has announced the country’s first rollout of MasterCard PayPass contactless cards, according to realdeal.hu.

OTP, the largest bank in Hungary, plans to issue 15,000 PayPass cards this year, with 350 points of sale available by the end of October.

Adelaide, Australia has announced plans to implement a smart card transit system by 2013, according to adelaidenow.com.au.

Transport Minister Patrick Conlon made the announcement today, putting the $30 million project in the hands of ATLAS, which has installed similar systems in Houston and Montreal.

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (Nasdaq:KTOS), a leading provider of national security, information technology and public safety solutions, today announced a contract to provide NeuralStar^® to the U.S. Army for network management of its IP-over-Satellite communications systems, helping ensure global U.S. forces on the move will remain connected and communicating.

NeuralStar is being used to monitor the operations and performance of the Wideband Global Satellite system (WGS), the high-speed satellite networks which link mobile U.S. warfighters and commanders through the Global Information Grid (GIG).   The WGS provides the Army with high-capacity bandwidth and long-haul reach for delivering converged IP-based voice, data, and intelligence to support maneuverability of its forces and constant battlefield situational awareness. 

Phil Carrai, President of Kratos IT Solutions Division explained, “Compared to ground-based networks, communications between terrestrial users and satellites present additional complexity and greater potential for disruption given varying wireless link conditions and use of non-standard network equipment. NeuralStar provides both the power and flexibility for service assurance under these difficult conditions.�

NeuralStar monitors events that may impact network availability, performance, security, or quality of service, providing network operators with a single situational awareness dashboard from which they can mitigate problems. By collecting performance data from all network hardware, applications, and systems, operators can identify health and status issues, making adjustments to maintain SATCOM throughput, minimizing anomalies such as congestion and latency.

The wideband global satellite system is managed by the Defense Communications and Army Transmissions Systems (PM–DCATS), which oversees strategic satellite communications and wideband control systems.  NeuralStar is being deployed within the Joint Management Operations Subsystem (JMOS) as the network management platform.

This new contract award delivers new licenses and services for NeuralStar version 9.5, a high availability network solution that supports JMOS’ paired system architecture.

About NeuralStar^®

In a world increasingly conscious of cybersecurity and IT performance demands, the need for better information sharing and situational awareness are placing new pressures on today’s network managers. NeuralStar provides enterprises with the ability to view and manage enterprise networks for all technologies, devices and protocols, ensuring continuity of network operations and high-level visibility in an integrated, real-time dashboard. 

NeuralStar resolves management challenges across data-voice-video, wireless-wireline, satellite-ground and other elements, offering a command and control view of distributed networks. It monitors all network-connected devices, such as hardware, applications and security systems, providing managers a window into all network resources, placing operators just clicks away from any network element or management tool to respond proactively to threats. Among other key customers, NeuralStar is used by DISA as the primary software component to manage the Defense Information Systems Network (DISN), the IT and telecom infrastructure for all U.S. defense operations. 

For more information on NeuralStar, please visit: http://www.neuralstar.net

First, there was Pepsi Vanilla. Then there was Pepsi Lime. Now, exclusively at Walgreens, you can get the latest special flavor of Pepsi: Pepsi H1N1. It is also available in frozen pizza, Buffalo wing, and ice cream form.

Fortunately, if you're not yet infected, Coke bottles offer the vaccine.

Yes, as if their outdoor billboards advertising "H1N1 NOW AVAILABLE" weren't confusing enough, they've now apparently printed up stickers and started slapping them on every surface in the store with no sense whatsoever of how this could be just a bit incongruous. Nah.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt tweeted that the search engine will air an ad during the third quarter of today's NFL Super Bowl, which can cost $3 million for just 30 seconds of air time. Google has to do something with that $25 billion of cash in the bank. Why not call attention to itself during the biggest advertising blitz of the year in the U.S
.?

Google CEO Eric Schmidt rarely tweets on Twitter -- he has posted 15 messages since Dec. 7, 2009 -- but one he posted Feb. 6 struck like a lightning bolt.

The search engine will apparently air an ad during the third quarter of today's NFL Super Bowl,which can cost $3 million for just 3 minutes 30 seconds of air time. See Schmidt's tweet:

Google has to do something with that $25 billion of cash in the bank. Why not call attention to itself during the biggest advertising blitz of the year in the U.S.? For those who care, the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints will play in the contest.

People of course are speculating: Will it be an ad for the Google Nexus One? This would surprise, as, unlike the massive ad campaign for the Motorola Droid by Verizon Wireless, this smartphone has been relegated to word-of-mouth and sales only through the Google Webstore.

John Battelle thinks it could be an ad for search and this ad in particular:

But does the leading search engine in the world really need to tell people about itself? I think 70 percent of the world is well-acquainted with Google. Unless of course, Google wants to bash Bing, which could be fun:

For more Google/Super Bowl action, see the YouTube AdBlitz channel, where users can go to pick this year's best Super Bowl commercial. The winning ad will appear on YouTube's homepage.

You don't have to pick Google's ad. How can anyone compete with the lecherous allure of those GoDaddy.com girls, or the various and sundry commercials of people doing stupid stuff for the sake of beet? But Google wouldn't mind.

The Senate voted Thursday to protect Georgians from evildoers, covert corporations and rogue doctors, seen and unseen, with the passage of a bill that would make it illegal to implant a microchip into someone without their permission.

“We are sending the message that Georgia is committed to upholding its citizens’ constitutional rights and protection of their person,” Pearson said. “Advances in technology are moving fast, and while most of these are for the good, we must be careful that it doesn’t come at the harm of citizens.”

But is this really a problem in Georgia?

Pearson said that he knows of no case in Georgia where someone has been involuntarily microchipped. He added that during his preliminary meetings on the bill, no one came to complain about it, and he has heard of no conspiracy plots or theories to put implants in massive amounts of Georgians. The notion that legions of people have been forcibly implanted by the government, aliens or nefarious corporations runs rampant throughout the Internet and in science fiction movies. Think Neo and his forced implantation by Agent Smith in "The Matrix."

“I have no firsthand knowledge of anything,” Pearson said. “I am simply trying to get ahead of this and protect the people. We don’t know what is going to happen.”

Pearson added that any information put inside a chip and then implanted into someone’s body can just as easily be stored somewhere above the skin.

“The benefits of a microchip that can be internally implanted are also available in many external forms,” Pearson said.

There have been a handful of corporations worldwide that have begun developing technology to inject people with implantable devices. In 2004, the VeriChip was approved by the FDA. Proponents say that implantable chips could help in identifying victims of major tragedies like Sept. 11 or the Haitian earthquake, or even wandering Alzheimer’s patients.

Pearson’s bill would clear the way for people who want implants. The bill does not prevent anyone from being able to voluntarily have a microchip implanted -- as long as the implantation is performed by a doctor and is regulated by the Georgia Composite Medical Board.

But opponents say that the devices can lead to unwanted surveillance and even cancer. There are some who say that it has religious implications and that the implantable devices are the "Mark of the beast."

If the bill, SB 235, gets past the state House, Georgia would join Wisconsin, North Dakota and California as states that have passed laws prohibiting the forced implantation of microchips in people.

Pearson said the bill has actually been floating around the Capitol for several years. In 2007, Rep. Ed Setzler (R-Acworth) introduced a bill in the House that didn’t go anywhere.

Pearson is hoping that his bill will be received favorably in the House.

But some critics of the bill wonder what the point is.

“This is a solution in search of a problem,” said Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta), one of only two senators to vote against it, along with Sen. Ronald Ramsey (D-Decatur). “We are spending our precious time -- with a billion-and-a-half-dollar deficit -- with something that is not a problem.”

New startup company Kwedit Inc. is making it easier for users of free online games like Farmville who don't have credit or debit cards to pay for the virtual goods sold in such games using cash or third-party payments.

The California-based company on Thursday launched a payment system called Kwedit Direct that allows users in the U.S. to pay for their digital purchases after the fact by mailing in cash, paying the bill at a 7-Eleven store or getting a friend or family member to pay on their behalf through a social payment network called Pass the Duck.

Ghana News Agency -

5, GNA - Mr Kwasi Amankwaah, Eastern Regional Information Services Department official, has urge Ghanaians to acquire the new Biometric Passport when it ...

If you work in the service industry and your job primarily deals with monitoring and managing storage tanks for customers, then you probably already know what a tedious process it is to keep track of tank levels. Having to travel from one location to the next on a regular basis, to determine which tanks are still holding enough and which ones are in need of a refill, gets old after awhile.

(AP) -- President Barack Obama is redirecting America's space program, killing NASA's $100 billion plans to return astronauts to the moon and using much of that money for new rocket technology research.

(PhysOrg.com) -- A major hurdle in the ambitious quest to design and construct a radically new kind of quantum computer has been finding a way to manipulate the single electrons that very likely will constitute the new machines' processing components or "qubits."

The European Payments Council (EPC) and GSMA, a trade group of wireless operators, have launched a consultation on SEPA and mobile contactless payments, according to finextra.com.

The two organizations are working to encourage cooperation among payment services providers and mobile network operators for the eventual creation of a Europe-wide mobile payment system that would allow some 500 million Europeans to make SEPA payments using their mobile handsets.

Visa Europe has announced plans to spend more than $273 million on R&D for contactless payments via card and mobile device, according to nearfieldcommunicationsworld.com

The announcement was made by Marc O’Brien, Visa Europe’s head of UK and Ireland, during a visit to Dublin to market contactless cards and NFC payment to Irish banks.

Technopark-based PIT Software Solutions and Services Company Wednesday extended its partnership with the Swiss Federal Institute's (EPFL) Brain Mind Institute to provide comprehensive IT support to the famed Blue Brain project.

The Blue Brain Project is the first comprehensive attempt to reverse-engineer the mammalian brain, in order to understand brain function and dysfunction through detailed simulations.

 

According to Henry Markram, director of the Swiss Federal Institute's (EPFL) Brain Mind Institute, who heads the Blue Brain project, the mysteries of the mind can be solved soon.

 

'The project involves an attempt to build a computerized copy of a brain, starting with a rat's brain, and then progressing to a human brain, inside one of the world's most powerful computers. This, it is hoped, will bring into being a mind that will be able to think, reason, express will, lay down memories and perhaps even experience love, anger, sadness, pain and joy,' says Markram.

 

The project will be extended all support related to IT by PIT Solutions.

 

Rafeek K. Mohammed and Thomaskutty Sebastian, co-founders of PIT Solutions, said the new partnership would enable PIT Solutions to enter an exciting and niche area in software development business.

 

'As part of the new partnership, PIT Solutions will deploy its IT infrastructure and expertise in supporting the various research programmes that are being undertaken as part of the Blue Brain Project,' said Mohammed.

 

Into its 10th year of operations, PIT Solutions excel in building web portals, implementing content management systems, and complex workflow applications.

An internal police investigation has been launched after a security camera was allegedly used to "zoom in on the rear of a lady" in Darwin's CBD.

CCTV equipment at the Darwin police station has been disabled until software is installed to keep a record of the officer controlling the equipment at the time.

The equipment is supposed to be used to zoom in on troublemakers in the city, but the Northern Territory Police Commissioner, John McRoberts, said an officer had made a complaint about the use of the equipment on January 29.

"The vision that I've seen indicates that there is potentially some inappropriate zooming in to some patrons outside a liquor outlet in Darwin," Commissioner McRoberts told 105.7 ABC Darwin this morning.

"Of course we are now subject to an internal investigation.

"I wouldn't say that it could be described as perving on young women.

"I think that from what I see there's an argument that could be presented to suggest that one of the cameras zoomed in on the rear of a lady.

"And it may well be that as a result of the investigation that that was an inappropriate use of the camera."

He said CCTV vision across the city was still monitored at the police headquarters in the Darwin suburb of Berrimah.

"The capacity for officers in the Darwin station to be able to manipulate, to be able to zoom in, to be able to pan and tilt the cameras has been switched off until we are able to introduce the software that has not yet been installed which makes it a requirement that you use a swipe card access to be able to operate the cameras," he said.

Earlier, a police spokeswoman told the ABC that the shut down of the CCTV equipment in the Darwin police station would have made no difference to the firebombing of the TIO insurance building on Wednesday morning.

She also said Darwin's CCTV network does not include a security camera in the immediate vicinity of the TIO office.

Australian Food - 

Australians remain uneasy about eating genetically modified (GM) foods, according to research from Swinburne University. The University's fifth National ...

Google spent $4 million on lobbying in 2009, up from $2.84 million in 2008 and almost three times the $1.52 million it spent in 2007. Microsoft's own lobbying spend plummeted from 2007 and 2008, where it was around $9 million, to $6.72 million. Microsoft must feel some cognitive dissonance here; while it's nice not to be the top target of governmental scrutiny, it's also a sign that it's not a threat to consumers, let alone competitors.

On this week’s live broadcast of the M2M Radio Show, listeners heard about the newest entry into the tablet/ereader space, the iPad from Apple, www.apple.com, Cupertino, Calif. Peggy Smedley, host of the M2M Radio Show, discussed Apple’s decision to choose AT&T’s, www.att.com, Dallas, Texas, cellular network to provide connectivity for the iPad, adding yet another popular connected device to AT&T’s arsenal.

According to Smedley, AT&T has said on numerous occasions that it wants to get every emerging device connected on its network, bringing about speculation regarding the company’s plans for M2M. Smedley also cited rumors that iPad being contract-free was the result of a price war between AT&T and one of its competitors.

Listeners had the opportunity to hear about another innovative device in the ereader space when Asghar Mostafa, CEO, enTourage Systems Inc.,www.entourageedge.com, McLean, Va., joined the show to talk about the company’s eDGe device. The concept for the eDGe, dubbed a “dual book” by the company, was first developed when enTourage Systems saw a gap in the ereader space for products that combine reading and additional capabilities into one device.

On this week’s live broadcast of the M2M Radio Show, listeners heard about the newest entry into the tablet/ereader space, the iPad from Apple, www.apple.com, Cupertino, Calif. Peggy Smedley, host of the M2M Radio Show, discussed Apple’s decision to choose AT&T’s, www.att.com, Dallas, Texas, cellular network to provide connectivity for the iPad, adding yet another popular connected device to AT&T’s arsenal.

eAccess LLC, a subsidiary of Cubic Corp., announced that it has produced several thousand Super Bowl Commemorative EASY Cards for Miami-Dade Transit.

The NFL-sanctioned commemorative cards went on sale Feb. 1 and are being sold while supplies last from now until game day on Feb. 7.

Hypercom Corp. announced that Carrefour, a global retailer, will deploy Hypercom’s Wynid server-based payment solution and more than 12,000 PIN Pads with EMV contactless readers at 210 of its French hypermarkets, as well as at all of Carrefour’s petrol stations in France.

The multi-million dollar agreement is believed to represent one of the world’s largest deployments of EMV contactless readers and represents an expansion to Hypercom’s existing business with Carrefour. The giant retailer already uses Hypercom’s Wynid secure payment solution at 15,000 cash registers in its Market, City and Contact stores.